Page 22 of Daddy’s Pursuit (The Daddy Guard #1)
Chapter Twenty-Two
The helicopter flew around downtown Los Angeles, giving Iris the ride of her life.
She hadn’t said as much, but Jack knew it by the way she laughed and the utter joy he saw in those gorgeous eyes.
“This is amazing!” Iris cried, pointing to the white tower. “I’ve never seen City Hall this close!” The excitement in her voice registered even over the headsets the three wore.
Talking into his attached mic, Jack said, “Soak it all in, babygirl.”
Ace circled the dominating structure once more before hooking west. “I’ll take you out over Mulholland.”
What Jack saw on Iris’s face was pure, unadulterated happiness. In fact, it was maybe the happiest he’d ever been, too. Seeing his cutie having the time of her life meant more to him than any amount of money ever could.
Unfortunately, though, it appeared as if it wouldn’t last long.
“Jack. We’ve got a situation.” Ace’s voice crackled over the radio.
“What’s up?”
Instead of answering Jack right away, Ace was just nodding and clearly talking to someone else. “Roger that. I’m on it.”
He then spoke to Jack. “Was on the police frequency, too. I’m switching us all over to that now. We have a call and it isn’t good.”
A few seconds later, the drama of the LAPD dispatch was in Jack’s ear. It was a familiar sound to him, but as he looked over at Iris, he saw that she was in awe by what she heard.
It was difficult, but Jack managed to shift his attention away from her and back to the call coming in. The story was easy enough to follow—men armed with assault rifles had committed a brazen robbery in broad daylight, stealing a large quantity of diamonds from a shop in the Jewelry District.
Three words stood out among the others: armor-piercing rounds .
Ace said it before he could. “Frank’s guns! Who else is moving that shit on the streets these days?” The pilot looked back quickly. “Sorry about my language, honey.”
Iris just giggled and waved. She was still clearly mesmerized by the excitement of it all. For her, this was probably like being in a TV show or movie, Jack figured.
“Jack,” Ace continued, “they need me to track ‘em. There’s not enough time to set this thing down and get her off.”
“Just go. We’ll be fine up here,” Jack said.
That was true. They were safer in the air than on the street where madmen were shooting round after round from assault rifles.
“What’s happening?” she yelled.
“It’s okay, honey. Do you trust Daddy?”
“Of course.”
“Then just sit back and enjoy the excitement. We have to chase some suspects from the air. It’s too dangerous for the guys on the ground to keep up the pursuit in their cruisers. They—or worse, civilians—might get hurt. The best option is for Ace to just keep an eye on their location.”
The chopper headed toward the suspects.
“They’re on Hill Street,” Jack stated.
“I think I have visuals on them.”
Jack reached to where a pair of binoculars were. The bird wasn’t his usual ride, but he’d been in it enough to know his way around Ace’s cockpit.
Ace lowered the chopper just a bit.
“Yeah. I got ‘em,” Jack announced as he zeroed in on his prey. “Black SUV.”
“There’s a lot of black SUVs. You sure it’s them?”
“The guy hanging out the passenger side window with an assault rifle gives them away,” Jack replied.
Ace laughed. “Maybe we can get these assholes off the street before they hurt anyone.”
But from the sky, all they could really do was track them. That was about it.
Or was it?
A devilish grin reached the corners of Jack’s mouth. “I used to work cattle on my uncle’s ranch in Arizona during the summers.”
“That’s cool, but now’s not the time for your boring stories,” Ace cackled.
“I have a point,” Jack said, still grinning as he shook his head. “One time, the herd got scattered after a storm. So, he hired some local pilots. They used two choppers and rounded them up and herded them home. It was a lot quicker than us doing it on horseback or in the trucks.”
Ace looked back with a smile of his own. “I gotcha. Which way you want me to herd these idiots?”
Jack looked down, studying the city grid like he would a map.
“4 th and Olive,” Jack said. “I’m going to have the guys on the ground set up a roadblock.”
“They might need more time,” Ace countered.
Jack thought about it. “Okay. Let’s have it at Temple and Grand. Right in front of the cathedral,” he said, referring to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. “Maybe going to church will do these idiots some good.”
“I hope. They need it,” Ace commented.
Jack radioed the plans in. Then, looking at Iris, he said, “You okay, babygirl?”
She gave him a thumbs up but didn’t say anything. He wondered if it was fear or excitement that rendered her speechless.
Ace took the helicopter low. What some might consider dangerously low. It worked, though. The car’s driver panicked. It tried to turn one way—its tires screeching and leaving smoking, black streaks on the street—but saw the chopper descending, so it went the opposite direction.
Which was exactly where Ace was trying to send them.
The helicopter’s drops felt like a rollercoaster and Jack noticed Iris was gripping the handle in front of her so hard that her knuckles were turning white.
“You good, honey?” he asked again.
She nodded.
“Barf bag’s in the seat in front of you,” Ace yelled. “Now hang on!”
The chopper felt as if it was freefalling, but only for a moment. It was amazing to Jack that Ace never came close to hitting a downtown building. He was an expert pilot and could maneuver the urban landscape with precision.
On the sidewalks, people had stopped to watch the action unfold. Others rushed out of their offices and the nearby stores. Some were holding their phones, probably livestreaming it all.
Hell, Jack thought, some of them probably think we’re filming a movie. That’s pretty common around here.
On the street, the car’s driver was clearly frantic and driving more erratically. Thankfully, the cops had directed traffic to the curb, leaving the center of the road nice and open for the fleeing perps.
Smarter people might have figured it was too easy and that this was a trap, Jack thought. But if the criminals thought that, it was too late for them to do anything about it.
They came to a wall of black-and-white cruisers, their red-and-blue lights swirling atop them as dozens of police officers leveled their guns in the car’s direction.
The chase was over without anyone being hurt.
And now it’s official , Jack thought with a grin. Little Iris indeed has been given the ride of her life.